TSU to protest at Chinese award ceremony review

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

Tue, Dec 11, 2012 - Page 3

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday criticized what it said was the opaqueness of the review process of a Chinese event planned to be held in Taipei and said it would stage a protest at a third reviewing meeting today.

Controversy over the Chinese Music Chart Awards (中國歌曲排行榜) arose after the Chinese organizers unilaterally announced the event would be held in Taipei on Dec. 29, despite not having received approval from the Taiwanese government.

The government did not approve the event after two joint review meetings by 26 agencies, with the Mainland Affairs Council saying the award ceremony would be prohibited, but that a concert could be held if the event were approved.

The TSU suspected the event would eventually be approved because the government insisted on holding a third joint review meeting today, TSU Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said.

The joint meeting is closed to the public and the press, and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) has refused to provide the TSU with documents on the meeting, which he said constituted contempt of the legislature and prompted suspicions of a hidden agenda, he said.

The TSU will stage a protest at the NIA against the third joint meeting today, she said.

TSU Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker had tried to make sure the event would be held because of the KMT’s close relations with Taipei Artist Agency Association, the event’s co-organizer in Taiwan. Deputy Speaker Hung Shiu-chu (洪秀柱) and KMT legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛) were listed as the association’s consultants.